Brady made sure to avoid Revis

Monday

Oct 17, 2011 at 12:01 AM

FOXBORO — Whether he was covering Deion Branch or Wes Welker, Darrelle Revis was treated as persona non grata by Patriots quarterback Tom Brady on Sunday. Brady threw the ball more often in the direction of Aaron Hernandez than any other individual i

By BRIAN MacPHERSON | | Journal Sports Writer

FOXBORO - Whether he was covering Deion Branch or Wes Welker,Darrelle Revis was treated as persona non grata by Patriotsquarterback Tom Brady on Sunday. Brady threw the ball more often inthe direction of Aaron Hernandez than any other individual in largepart because Revis - probably the best cover corner in the NFL -never covered Hernandez.

"We tried to switch it up on them a little bit," said Revis, whocovered Branch almost exclusively during the playoff game betweenthe two teams in January. "I was on (Welker) a couple of times, anda couple of other people were also on him. We were just trying togive them a mixture of things."

Only twice did Brady throw the ball anywhere near Welker - whobegan and ended the day on a historic pace for NFL wide receivers -while Revis was covering him. One of those was a quick lob towardthe sideline that gave Welker no chance to run with the ball afterthe catch. The other might have been the biggest play of thegame.

On the Patriots' first play from scrimmage in the second half -and their first play from scrimmage since what could have been amomentum-changing interception at the goal line - Welker flew pasta surprised-looking Revis down the middle of the field and caught adeep play-action pass from Brady. He'd gained 73 yards by the timeRevis chased him down.

Revis appeared to cross signals with safety Eric Smith, who biton the play-fake. Revis, meanwhile, found himself caughtflat-footed in uncharacteristic fashion until Welker was alreadypast him.

"He was going across the field and got us on a double-move, andhe was gone up the field," Revis said.

"The safety was a little overaggressive," Welker said. "We run asimilar type of play and ran the ball, so I kind of got a feel forwhat that safety was doing. I went down and acted like I was goingto block him and then took off on it."

Three play later, with Revis covering Welker again, Brady threwa touchdown pass to a wide-open Branch in the back corner of theend zone.

The 32-yard catch in the first quarter - a play during whichRevis was covering Branch - and 73-yard catch in the third made upalmost all of the production for Welker on the day. But it stillwas good enough for the Pro Bowl wide receiver to compile 124receiving yards in the game, his third straight 100-yard game.

Welker has caught 45 passes for 740 yards on the season, mostever for a wide receiver through five games. He's on a pace toamass 2,368 receiving yards this season, which would break JerryRice's all-time mark of 1,848 by a wide margin - and he's alreadymore than halfway to Randy Moss' franchise record.

pkenyon@providencejournal.com

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